Today in 1990, 1,426 people are suffocated and trampled to death in a tunnel near Mecca during the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the city of Mecca. The stampede started when seven people fell from a pedestrian bridge onto pilgrims exiting the tunnel below, causing panic exacerbated by failed ventilation in the 110°F heat. Amazingly, this wasn’t the most deadly such incident: at least 2,236 pilgrims were killed in the 2015 “Mina Stampede.”

“Facebook doesn’t want your money. It wants your time. ¶ minutiae is a response to our current moment: an anonymous anti-social media app that forces its users to document the in-between moments of life.” I kind of love this app. → minutiae: the anti social media app

Today in 1876, General George Custer is killed in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In what would come to be known as “Custer’s Last Stand,” more than 250 U.S. soldiers would be killed in well under an hour by a combined force of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Though victorious, the battle was a turning point in a protracted conflict, marking the beginning of the end of the Indian Wars. Custer’s legacy has been, to put it lightly, mixed: for nearly a century Custer was seen as a heroic military figure who gave his life for the cause of his country; in recent decades assessment of his military strategy, not to mention his own conduct, has been greatly diminished.

Today in 1984, talk show radio host Alan Berg is gunned down in his driveway in Denver, Colorado. Berg’s loud, bitter and mostly liberal views angered and engaged radio listeners, though his style was tame by today’s standards.

“Fifty years ago, Marottichal was rife with alcoholism and illicit gambling, but everything changed after one man taught the town to play an ancient game of strategy.” → The ancient game that saved a village

A brief essay on true “first editions,” AKA books published during the incunabula, with a few nice illustrations. → On the Nature of Things

“…This mark is based on the Tilburg dialect word ‘jè’ (which sounds more or less as ‘yeah’) that is used as a confirmation but often expresses some doubt or mild irony. The jè-mark bridges the gap between the exclamation point and the question mark.” → TilburgsAns introduces a new punctuation mark

“…a collection of “persuasive” cartography: more than 800 maps intended primarily to influence opinions or beliefs — to send a message — rather than to communicate geographic information. The collection reflects a variety of persuasive tools, including allegorical, satirical and pictorial mapping; selective inclusion; unusual use of projections, color, graphics and text; and intentional deception.” [Thanks, Reader K.]

Philographics is a series of posters that “explain big ideas in simple shapes.” Effectively, in some cases, icons.

The new paint colors invented by neural network story has been going around. I share here because: 1) funny, 2) this is the original story and 3) lost in the laughter is how amazed we should be at what is essentially the early infancy of AI. It’s like judging how the adult version of a two-week old will think and what he or she will come up with.

I’m about as prescriptivist as one gets, but The “Jane Austen” fallacy is a sound idea and coinage…though I am confused by the quotation marks in the name.

Today in 1936, Geisha and prostitute Sada Abe is arrested after walking around Tokyo for several days with her lover’s severed penis and testicles hidden in her kimono. The multi-day search for Abe caused panic, a near-stampede and traffic jams throughout Tokyo. Abe’s actions and trial not only caused a sensation and spawned a multitude of books and movies (most famously In the Realm of the Senses but the transcript of her interrogation and confession was widely circulated, greatly amplifying an already strong tradition of fiction and essays by dokufu or “poison women.” After her release from prison in 1941, Abe toured as an actress in small stage productions before becoming a waitress (and showpiece) in a Tokyo pub. Abe was last seen in a Japanese nunnery in the mid-70s.